Hyrule's Breath
by marchharex
Summary: An anomaly sends Sora and Riku to a new world; Hyrule's Breath, a world slowly devoured by the darkness. Their keyblades, however, are just useless keys... and their fairy forms don't help. They will have to find a way to free that world with their new allies; Sora, Hyrule's prince, and his mysterious knight in the shadows. [Canon meets parallel world - Slow burn Soriku/Riso]
1. May your heart be your guiding key

English isn't my native language so, please, bear with me (feel free to let me know if I mess up something! that way I can improve). Now, this is kinda a "Canon meets AU/Parallel World" kinda fic. It uses Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the new world, but I'm trying to avoid following the story from it. Yes, it uses the "legend" and will keep the names from tribes/places. The story takes place after KH3D and may have some hints from KH3.

Slow burn? Slow burn! I hope you like those, because this will be a long ride.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor BotW

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_Chapter 1: May your heart be your guiding key._

Blue eyes looked around sleepily, looking for something that could keep them distracted. It had been only mere hours since the triumph of one and the fiasco of the other, the bittersweet taste of the moment still present on his palate. Why did he have to give in to the dark in such an important moment? Why, after everything he has been through, he had to fail so miserably and make his best friend go after him? Not only that, but he also had to lose much of his strength so he would have to wait time –long time– before he could try to gain his keyblade master title._ Again_.

Sora's gaze fell on Riku, who was focused driving the gummi ship; it was the one the King and Riku used so, of course, the silverette was the one allowed to drive it from them. The brunet groaned as he dropped the weight of his body fall on his seat, calling his childhood's friend attention.

"Are you okay?" The older teen asked, taking his eyes away from the big screen to look at his friend.

"Yeah, I'm just bored" Sora answered, folding his arms over his chest. That answer made Riku chuckle after returning his attention to his front.

After celebrating Riku's triumph –and Sora shoved all the chocolate cake down his throat to erase any trace of sadness for his failure– at Yen Sid's tower, Mickey decided to throw some bad news. Him and Riku, since they were a team, had to leave to investigate an anomaly that appeared on one of the paths between worlds. In a rush, Sora demanded to go with the silverette instead of the king to everyone's surprise. Donald complained for how rude of him was to leave_ your Highness_ out of his own plan and to don't count with him and Goofy. The three of them made a full pin, right? It was just logical that if Sora decided to go, they _had_ to go too. But the keyblade bearer refused for once with a smile, excusing himself that it seemed a mission easy enough for just Riku and him. Also, he needed to get strong again and being with the new keyblade master could be an easy way to do so.

He wasn't going to admit that he wanted to spend some time with his friend alone outside of any danger, and while he had loved to have Kairi with them too, the redhead had her own plans. They barely had any time to spend together since the darkness decided to gobble Destiny Islands with a storm, so any little excuse was good enough for him.

Despite Donald's complains, Mickey's doubts and Goofy's worries, Yen Sid allowed the both of them together to investigate what seemed to bring closer and closer some worlds.

"How much is left to arrive?" Sora asked after triumphantly remembering why they were there alone.

"We shouldn't be far. That's Halloween Town, and Mickey said it was between this world and Neverland."

"Hey!" The brunet stood up, taking a couple steps to stand next to his friend's seat and watch properly at the big screen. "Once we are done investigating, we could stop on Halloween Town. I want you to meet so-"

His words were cut out as the gumi ship began to shake. Silver eyebrows furrowed while the older teen tried to steady the ship without much success. A red light began to illuminate the small cabin and an annoying alarm began to sound. It didn't take long before Riku lost all control between all kind of curses. Sora tried to hold tight to his friend's seat, but the shakes were so strong that he lost his balance and ended up on the floor, yelping as soon as his head hit the hard surface.

"Sora! Go si- Shit!"

Aquamarine eyes opened wide in horror, his skin getting even more pale the moment the older teen found out what was the problem. The anomaly Mickey talked about wasn't any joke.

"Riku! Sora! What's going on?!" The King's voice could be heard from one of the small intercoms. "I'm with Chi-le, and all the ala-ku! Riku! Can you he-!" The voice was interrupted every now and then by a buzz, till some sparks made it clear the intercom, or even part of the inner ship, just exploded. That, if the smoke coming from every corner wasn't a hint of it.

The silveret stood up despite the strong shaking and helped his friend stand on his feet, but when was the moment to help the brunet go sit on his seat Sora screamed out. His blue eyes could see that thing staring at them, staring at _him_.

"What the hell is that?!" Sora's voice was barely audible due the annoying alarm. He refused to go sit to Riku's frustration.

"Sora! Go sit down and put on your belt! It is dangerous to stand he-" His words cut out when the teen felt like losing his balance.

In front of the gumi ship a huge black hole, almost as big as Halloween Town, was slowly welcoming them. It was sucking everything, every single star, every world close enough to it... But that wasn't the worse part, but the even bigger heartless coming out of it. Its long, sharp claws danced around trying to hold anything that was getting close enough, fangs poked out of his wide-open mouth and it was easy to see it had more than one line of teeth. It looked like it was throwing up darkness, even its blood-infused eyes. A tongue even longer than its arms, playfully mocking its victims as if it could taste them from the distance. But... It was just part of it! It looked like there was even more at the other side of the portal.

"We have to kill it!" Sora exclaimed, quickly holding his keyblade.

"That's true, but we need to go to safety first. I'll try to land on Halloween Town, there we will call the others and see what we ca-" And, again, he was unable to finish his words.

Riku was trying to keep calm despite the scene they were in, he knew Sora was already a sack of nerves by the way his body was trembling and, also, that one of them had to keep in control. Another shake sending both teen out of balance, making the only keyblade present vanish. This time, however, Riku lost it completely while trying to push Sora to the safety of his seat. What he wasn't expecting is to hit his head so hard against the controlers that lost consciousness. The brunet couldn't do anything else but to panic. He ran awkwardly to the older teen, dropped on his knees and hold the pale body between his arms, screaming his name hoping he would wake up soon. The alarm and the red light only increased his despair; he couldn't think properly, he wasn't strong enough to throw himself against that giant heartless alone... That would be their end.

_Would they have lived a longer life if the keyblade did not exist?_

His keyblade appeared on his hand with a bright, almost blinding, sparkle. A ray of light made its way from the end of the key to the black hole. The heartless screamed in pain and, twisting, made its way back inside the portal.

But it was too late for them.

The gumi ship was slowly pulled toward the big hole. It didn't take long before all the metal, and even the two teens, began to deform in a tortuous way as the ship approached the gravitational area. Sora could feel as if a thousand blades were stuck in his body, as if every single bone of his body was breaking until the pain was unbearable and everything around him just started to disappear in a black blur. Still, he refused to let go his his unconscious friend on an attempt to protect him of whatever was their fate. It was their end. It was a very stupid way to end their story.

"Chip! Dale! Prepare the other ship. We are going to find what's going on." Mickey ordered as soon as the communication was cut out.

He couldn't believe he allowed Riku and Sora to go alone. Yeah, sure, Yen Sid made it clear it was a simple mission even a child could do; go, see what's going on and get back. But, clearly, something went wrong between that 'go and get back'. Of course, Mickey trusted the teens' skills, and knew they could handle any danger, but everyone had their limits on what they can, or can't, handle alone.

"Your majesty...?" Donald asked, worry on his face.

"I should have gone with them." The King whispered to himself, looking at the ceiling.

"Your majesty! Good news! GOOD NEWS!" squeaked one of the squirrels a couple of minutes after, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Whatever Sora and Riku did, the anomaly is gone! Everything is back to normal on our radar!" continued the other squirrel. "However, the gummi ship is missing. We sent the last location to the other ship. It should be ready in no time."

After a quick salute both squirrels ran away to continue with the preparations. Mickey allowed himself to sigh with relief, it meant Riku and Sora were alright, right? Maybe the gummi ship needed some reparations, but maybe the crew was just fine in one of the closest worlds, waiting for someone to go find them. Seeing Mickey's lips curling in a soft smile, Donald felt himself relax.

"...ra!"

_Ugh._

"Sora! Wake up!" That squeaky, unfamiliar voice sounded full of worry. "Oh, c'mon! Sora, please..."

"Five more minutes, mom..."

Wait-

"What?!" Sora sat up placing both hands over his neck, trying to feel what was wrong. However, his actions were so fast that they made his whole body shake in pain. He could still feel the thousands of nonexistent needles stuck in his body, piercing more in his skin with each movement. The pain could be seen reflected on his face.

"What's going on?" the brunet asked, blushing at his weird new voice. His voice was even squeaker than the one that woke him up. It was like he just turned into a squirrel, as if he had breathed helium. Brown brows furrowed as he turned around to glare at whoever was laughing at him; to his surprise, it was Riku. As if the glare actually worked, Riku yelped while raising one hand to his head.

"I guess we landed on a new world" the older teen finally answered, rubbing the bump from when he hit the controllers. It was time for Sora to burst out laughing at his friend's voice. Both voices were very ridiculous! "Yeah, yeah. Laugh all you want, but at least my wings aren't pink" the older boy teased with a smirk.

Wings? The brunet stopped laughing almost instantly. At Sora's confused expression from behind the silverette a pair of white, fairy-like, wings spread. The younger of the two looked quickly behind him, realizing that he also had his own wings. They were just like Riku's, but a soft pastel blue. Not pink, at least.

"You liar!" Sora complained, making the older laugh.

"It would have been cute, tho."

"So, what are we exactly? Our clothes are the same a- Oh! You have pointy ears! Wait, wait- the ship looks huge! Did we get small?!" Was it excitement in Sora's voice or worry?

"I'm unsure. Fairies, maybe?"

The silence fell between them as the brunet looked around. The gummi ship was almost irreparable, it was a surprise that they had survived. There was a small red spot where Riku had fallen before, indicating that the older teen had been bleeding. There was a bigger red spot, however, over the controllers; Sora probably hit himself there. But, now that it clicked on Sora, he realized none of them had injuries and no one would say they had been in an accident if wasn't for the ship's state and the blood around.

"How did we..." The younger boy began, but didn't dare to continue.

"I don't know. When I woke up, we were against the controllers, you over me with your head on that little puddle." Riku explained, confirming that Sora did, indeed, hit himself pretty hard. That didn't explain, however, why none of them had injuries. "The blood on my bump was dry, but I couldn't feel anything else. Well, other than as if I have been crushed for hours."

Sora stopped listening at him at some point, feeling a tingling in his stomach while trying to contain his laughter. The older teen began to shine in a pure silver color as his wings flapped, flying slightly to rise up to a small hole that had appeared when the ship's metal bent at the crash. He even had little sparkles following him! The brunet found himself hypnotized.

"We should try to find a way to let Mickey and the others know where are we" Riku talked, unaware that his friend's mind wasn't with him.

Blue eyes closed tightly as the owner shook his head, returning his attention to the situation. He tried to flap his wings and follow Riku, but it looked like his new body parts refused to work properly.

"_Think of beautiful things! And you will fly, you will fly, you will fly!"_

That's right. That's how he managed to fly on Neverland. Following the memory of Peter Pan's words, Sora closed his eyes and focused. Everything around them was silent so it was easy to focus on happy thoughts, even when the soft sound of a pair of wings flapping –probably Riku's– broke said silence. "_You can do it, Sora_" the brunet thought before trying to find the best thoughts in his mind. Back then the mere thought of Kairi was enough for him to fly but, this time, it wasn't as beautiful as it used to be or it wasn't the way to fly there.

"You can do it, Sora" the silverette voice broke the silence.

Sora's wings moved as soon as the older boy spoke, but instead of making the brunet happy it made him confused. Himself, just like the older, was sparkling too, just his light was blue instead. He just thought of Riku since the other's voice just filled his mind. Was now Riku's thoughts stronger than Kairi's? Blinking in confusion he didn't realize that he was flapping his wings probably too fast, only doing so when hitting the ceiling of the ship. While Riku's laugh and Sora's complains flooded the air, both were cut by a shout coming from outside.

The silverette pointed a hole big enough for them both to fit and, followed by a clumsy Sora, left the gumi ship to find the source of the screams. Not too far from the crashed ship there was a figure running from two heartless, screaming and imploring for someone to help him. The figure was wearing pure white garments with golden ornaments; flat golden shoes, puffy pants with golden belts and a really small top covering only his chest and arms, complemented with a cloak-ish that was falling from the edge of the top, as if was part of it. Keyblade master and bearer summoned their weapons, flying as fast as their wings allowed them ready to help the boy. The brown spiky hair of the guy running, the caramel tan skin, those blue watery eyes... He was really, really familiar to Sora, but it was even more for Riku who just stopped abruptly once realizing who the other guy looked like. It was like a replica of Sora.

"Help!" Sora's copy screamed, yelping once stumbling over a small stone along the way.

Riku shook his head; it wasn't the moment nor the place to freeze in place. He followed Sora, who was already attacking one of the small heartless. With how many times he hit it, being the weakest kind of heartless, it should be dead by the time Riku got to him, but it was like the keyblade was just tickling it.

"I'm not that weak, gosh!" Sora was frustrated, more when he saw how Riku's attack were just as weak as his. Maybe it had to do with their size? Did their keyblades became useless keys?! While keymaster and bearer got one of the heartless' attention, the other kept running to its victim; it jumped with its claws ready to hole the boy's chest and look for the pure and sweet light of his heart before Riku and Sora's horrified eyes, but suddenly it became a ball of dark smoke, freeing any heart it had with it as the darkness vanished. It just took a couple of seconds before the other heartless followed the same fate.

"What- What happened?" questioned Sora, unable to understand what had happened.

Unable to answer, Riku looked around expecting to find Mickey and his loyal men, but he only found a black figure disappearing over a cliff. Silver brows furrowed, following the black figure. Despite moving his wings as fast as he could, for any humanoid Riku was moving in a really slow peace. So, of course, by the time he reached the place where the black figure has been there was already no one to be seen.

"Wah... Are you two children of the forest?!" Sora's copy asked on a cheerful tone.

Both Riku and Sora looked at the humanoid, confused at his question. Riku wanted to ask if he was another replica, but due past experiences didn't dare to ask.

"Children... of the forest?" Riku asked as soon as he reached back next to his best friend, tilting his head.

"I guess you aren't if you don't know what I'm talking about" the copy chuckled.

Now that he looked more closely there were a couple differences between that copy and Sora, one of them being the obvious long strands and those beautiful, hypnotizing little stars on his blue eyes. A couple of seconds later Sora yelped, pointing at his copy while screaming incoherent stuff.

"You look just like me! Are you a replica from the Organization?!"

"You can be so slow sometimes..." Riku sighed with exasperation.

"Re... plica?" The copy couldn't help but chuckle once again, placing his hands flat to let both fairies rest on them. While Riku didn't move, Sora sat with his legs crossed over the other's palm. "Thank you for saving me."

"Actually, we didn't." The silverette said, pointing to one of the arrows stuck in the ground.

Sora's copy looked at it with his eyebrows frowned, but quickly sighed and relaxed his expression.

"They did it again." The copy whispered.

"Who?" Sora asked.

"I don't know. Since I left the castle whenever one of those things tries to attack me, it's like someone appears and saves me, but before I can even thank them, they aren't there anymore."

At least that answered if the black figure was an enemy or an ally.

"Lived." The other answered with a sad expression. "The castle was attacked and destroyed by a huge black monster. Since then, those small creatures appeared. It's almost like the legend said..."

"What legend?" Was Riku's turn to ask, even if he had other more important questions.

"When the blood moon rises, dark Nogan will raise to destroy the world. Only the pure princess and the chosen one, her knight, and the four champions will have the power to destroy him." There was a pause. "The few that survived the attack says the monster that attacked us is dark Nogan since it appeared when the moon was red and... It had like a heart shape. But I'm no princess, nor I have a knight..."

Sora and Riku exchanged looks as they both tried to understand what was going on. For the description the guy gave, the apparition of that monster –probably a heartless– had to do with Kingdom Hearts. The question was why.

"I'm trying to go to the Great Forest of Hyrule, would you like to come with me? I would feel safer if I don't go alone!" The copy said. "Oh, by the way, I'm Sora! Hyrule's prince. And you two?"

Sora.

So, not only Riku had a replica, but also Sora now? That was the only answer Riku could find to all this.

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I'll be uploading the designs of each character on my tumblr as they appear. Links on my profile.


	2. Prince of nothing

**_Chapter 2: Prince of nothing._**

Silence had fallen between the three young men, a silence more than uncomfortable. The humanoid kept his head tilted to the side, smiling on an attempt to make the situation more comfortable since he was unable to understand what was so wrong with his name. Or himself, for that matter. Sora didn't know what to say, neither did Riku. Both fairies looked at the tan boy, both waiting for the other to break the silence. After a few minutes of silence only broken by the bird's chirping, Riku gently pushed his friend with one hand towards the humanoid, inviting him to talk first.

"A-ah... Yeah. Ahem." The keyblade bearer looked at his friend with pleading eyes, but Riku averted his gaze to look at the humanoid. After a long sigh escaped his lips, Sora realized that the silverette wasn't going to say a thing. "I'm Sora, and this is my friend, Riku."

"Ri-...ku..." The prince's eyes seemed to lose all his light as the little stars vanished for a few seconds and his lips lined up. It was as if his soul escaped between his lips at the mention of that name. However, he quickly recovered and the bright smile was back on his face. "Nice to meet you two! So, if you aren't children of the forest, what are you two?"

"Fairies" was the quick answer from Riku.

"Really...? I've never seen fairies like you." The prince moved his hands to approach them to his face, looking at the other two more closely since they were resting on his palms. "You have hylian's bodies, the ones I always see are like little puffy balls with big wings." The young boy chuckled.

"_Hy-Hyrian_? _Hydan_?" Sora, the fairy, squinted, trying to pronounce the word properly.

"Hylian" The boy repeated. "That's what I am."

That explained why he also had pointy ears instead of the common human ones. Riku titled his head to the side as his mind tried to make up an excuse or an answer to why they looked different from the other fairies. Although he had a question, and was why they shifted forms on a world where humanoids existed. Then it clicked to him; maybe that other Sora wasn't a replica. Maybe, just maybe, it was just another version of him and that's why he was unable to keep his own form –to don't confuse and endanger the balance of the worlds-. Or worse, maybe he was the real Sora's nobody?! He was taken out of his thoughts when hearing his friend speak again.

"We are a special kind of fairies! Unique and rare ones. We exist to destroy the heartless!" The tan fairy said, nodding at his own words. He was proud of his excuse, even if it made no sense considering how they were unable to kill a single heartless.

"Right... the creatures that attacked me. Then more reasons to come with me! It seems I attract them; wherever I go, they are there." Both fairies exchanged looks before looking at the prince, both nodding at the same time. "Great!"

As the hylian stood up, Riku flapped his wings to fly along him while the original Sora, in Riku's eyes, just decided to take a sit over the prince's head, using the brown spikes to keep him in place whenever the other moved his head suddenly.

The silverette tried to keep the same pace as the prince, but due his tiny size it was very difficult to him. Both Sora were talking or, better said, the fairy was asking while the other was answering cheerfully. They learned about the world, the places and its tribes. There were names none of the fairies could pronounce nor remember, but that didn't seem to bother them. After all, they would leave as soon as they were able too.

The warm weather made Riku tired sooner than he thought and decided to just take a sit next to his friend, apologizing to the prince who just chuckled. Since he didn't have to fly anymore, he decided to keep himself distracted looking around; they were on a colorful forest, or at least it looked like that by all the trees, bushes and flowers around. The path they were following looked like it was made by humans –hylians– walking over and over until the soil was dead and unable to germinate more grass. It didn't look like someone took the time to connect towns or whatever kind of places the civilization on that world lived. Every now and then they would see a wild animal crossing their path or run away from them, even those that looked dangerous. Seeing as how the other two Sora kept talking, this time about a tribe that lived surrounded by water, Riku kept his attention around them; alert to any danger.

It took him a few minutes –maybe even longer– to realize that there was someone following them. Silver brows furrowed as he turned around, looking everywhere. Since he couldn't see anything, he thought it could be just his imagination but then a black figure jumped from one tree to another, and another. Was that the same person? Whoever it was, it seemed as if they retreated as soon as they realized they were noticed.

Or maybe...

A scream from the humanoid brought Riku back to reality, just in time to flap his wings as the prince moved his head abruptly. He looked around to find that some heartless were surrounding them, hungry for their light. The hylian took a step back, his body shaking slightly in fear. He wasn't trained to fight, neither he had to since he was always surrounded by the royal family's guards. But they were all dead, or so Sora thought. Even if all the heartless around them were still the weakest kind, they were too many for the two little fairies. Still, that didn't stop them to flap their wings with their keyblades ready, attacking the black creatures with no result. Riku kept hitting one of the shadows with his weapon, hearing how his friend was yelling to another of the creatures.

"That's useless!" The silverette screamed, smacking once again the shadow who just titled its head.

Sora the fairy flew away from the shadow he was attacking and pointed his keyblade to it. His lips quickly moved and a ball of fire seemed to appear on his weapon, however, as soon as it was launched towards its enemy the ball comically fell to the ground, vanishing. On another moment the brunet would have laughed at how stupid that looked, but this time his brows were furrowed in annoyance. What kind of _special fairies that exists to destroy the heartless_ they were? Remembering how his friend lost big part of his strength after the exam, Riku imitated him just to have the exact same result.

"We should retread" Riku said, placing himself back to back with his childhood friend.

"But how? We are surrounded by them!" With a worried look he looked at the other Sora, who was still shaking in fear. They could easily fly away from them, but the humanoid clearly was unable to do so.

As if his question had been heard by a divine being, the whinny and fast jogging of a horse could be heard before some of the heartless were sent flying, fading into a ball of dark smoke. The majestic black animal rose on its two hind legs, whinnying one last time before crushing another shadow with its two front legs. There was just one shadow missing, but an arrow took it down before the animal retreated.

"Again...?" Riku whispered, looking how a black figure jumped over the animal once it was far enough. Getting away.

"Wait! WAIT!" The prince reacted, trying to run after the animal. "Who are you?! Why do you keep saving me?!"

"I can't be the only one who thinks that is suspicious" The tan fairy whispered once he got closer to Riku, frowning. The silverette only shook his head in response.

It didn't take long before the hylian gave up on his chase and decided to come back with the fairies, his breathing accelerated due to his recent race. He dropped himself to his knees, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Sora...? Are you okay?" The tan fairy asked, slowly flying to him.

The heartbreaking scream that the prince let out scared the two fairies, who quickly made their way to be close to other's face. Tears quickly made their way down his rosy cheeks while he kept stuttering inconsistencies. He was feeling a strange mixture of feelings; afraid of what could happen to him with those creatures, confused by the mysterious person that kept saving him, he was feeling just so useless and alone since he wasn't surrounded by the warmth of his family... Embracing himself he was now silent, letting his head drop forward on an attempt to hide from the world. Everything just happened so fast, he had no time to mourn the lose.

He could hear the other two talking on their squeaky voices but couldn't understand what were they saying. It wasn't until he felt a tiny hand placed over his now hot cheek that he opened his eyes that he didn't know he closed.

"We can rest if you need to. Riku went to see how far the bridge you mentioned is and if it's safe to go, so just relax." The hylian looked up enough to see the fairy that looked just like him smiling reassuringly at him.

"How... am I supposed to help my people if everyone is dead?" The prince asked as he slowly made his way to rest against a tree. Hugging his legs against his chest and hiding his face between them, he curled up into a trembling ball while his mind seemed to leave his body to remember what happened tortuously.

The day had passed as usual, a routine that at first seemed annoying but to which he had succumbed over time; the prince would spend most of the day with his nose on a book, pretending to read until the old lady got his attention back to the pages with a scream. It didn't matter how beautiful the day was outside, as a prince he had his duties. Before dinner the brunet would look through a window how some kids were running around while screaming and laughing, until the king made his presence obvious to the teen. His father would give him the talk of how he had to study and learn properly how to rule the kingdom, he would lie and tell him how the villagers called him the future king of nothing due to his clumsiness and weakness. At first, Sora would look upset with his father and as soon as the older vanished through one of the big wooden doors his expression would turn into a sad one.

While dinner normally passed silently, on that occasion something dramatically changed that damn routine. Sora nearly chocked on the vegetable he was chewing when cries of agony were present outside the castle and the guards began to run through the halls, the senior officers giving instructions.

"Sora, dear, come with me" the calm voice of the queen suggested after patting softly her son's back. As soon as the hylian recovered he looked up at her mother. She was just a couple centimeters taller than him and her always calm expression, even in the bad moments, managed to keep the prince from having a panic attack. Her brown hair was long past to her waist, the golden tiara on her forehead almost hidden with her bangs. Blue eyes were looking at him with worry as a tan, soft hand removed a strand from the prince's face and carefully placed it behind his ear. "Remember, stay calm" were her last words before quickly turning around and, without even looking at her husband, she held one of her son's hand while with the other pulled the skirt from her plain, long dress up enough to run away.

Both mother and son had been running through secret passages between the walls, hearing screams from the soldiers, swords fall on the stone floor, furniture breaking, windows shattering into pieces... Sora's mother turned around every now and then to make sure he was as calm as possible despite the nightmare they could hear. He was taught that if the castle was ever in danger, he had to keep calm while running to safety; if in panic, he would trip over everything, he could shake in fear or even freeze in place making him the best target for the enemy. He wondered why he wasn't taught to fight and be brave like his father, who was –or should be– fighting alongside the guards to defend those walls of whatever was attacking them. That was a question that it didn't mind how many times it was asked; never was answered. Sora gave up after thinking his father just saw him too weak or useless to fight.

They spent long minutes running through narrow and cold stone passageways. Every time his nude skin would touch the wall it sent him shivers through his spine. The more they ran, the colder the environment became. Soon their breath turned foggy, forcing them to let go their hands to hug themselves on an attempt to keep warm. After a last turn, the woman carefully pushed one of the walls enough to see what was happening on the other side; nothing. With slow steps pushed the wall a bit more so both of them could leave the passageway and as soon as they were in the new room, she pushed back the wall to close the entrance. They were now on the throne room. It was huge, stone walls and floor wherever you looked. There was a long red carpet with golden border that went from the big doors to the three thrones, but there was another big circular one right in the middle of the room. Large golden chandeliers fell easily from the ceiling and small oil lamps hung on the walls, between the huge and colorful windows. Close to the walls, there were small figures that looked like angels praying, while there was a big one –almost as tall as the room was– from their goddess right behind the thrones. Only two big pictures gave some more color to the room, and one of those was the secret entrance.

"It's freezing..." Sora said as he caressed his arms, trying to warm himself a bit faster. Why was so cold all of a sudden? And why the chandeliers weren't light like always? As soon as his lips parted to say something else the door slammed open, pushed by a black stampede. The dark river of creatures made its way to the very center of the room, where it just crashed while some black creatures were sent flying from the hit. Hundreds of creatures appeared, slowly trapping the queen and the prince on a circle. Some of those things were jumping on their place, while others just kept moving excitedly without taking away their golden eyes from their victims. One of those shadows jumped towards them, but another stopped it. For long, tortuous seconds, the creatures fought each other as if they were trying to see who would take their victims. Sora couldn't take it anymore and, with tears already wetting his cheeks, he shouted in panic. It seems that cry made the creatures react and instead of fight each other they fused into a large, giant black twister with the big open already pointing the two hylians. Sora closed tight his eyes as he clung to his mother, who hugged him back in a protective way as they waited for their fate.

One that never came.

The creatures chirped making Sora open his eyes to see what happened, only seeing a black figure in front of them with two swords on his hands. One of the swords had a white aura while the other had a black one. The brunet took only a couple seconds to check their savior, realizing the person was wearing a tight outfit that covered their entire body. The swordman looked over their shoulder, showing that in fact everything but their eyes were covered. The savior quickly looked back at the creatures and, without any doubt, jumped towards the black twister that began to form again. Their movements were fast and careful, as if they were trained just to fight. The creatures were taken down in groups; with every turn, with each jump, with any movement at all, more of those shadows were slain. However, no matter how many disappeared, more and more appeared.

"SORA!" the queen screamed, pushing her son away. While the black figure seemed to be occupied, a new twister formed and made its way to the two helpless hylian.

The brunet yelped as he hit the ground, but as soon as he tried to stand on his feet again his whole body froze; the twister swallowed his mother in front of him, making her scream in pain until a small heart shaped floated and vanished through the cold stone ceiling.

"RUN!" The savior cried out without even bothering to look at the other.

With a heartbreaking scream and with the blurry look from the tears that gathered in his eyes Sora started running.

"It will be dark soon, we should continue moving forward soon" a squeaky voice returned Sora to reality. Blinking the tears away the brunet incorporated his head, disorientated. "Are you feeling better?" The two fairies were looking at him with worried expressions.

"Yeah, I'm fine now" The prince lied, standing up.

"Cool! Riku said the bridge is not far, so we should be close"

The prince only nodded as he allowed the other two to sit again on his head. The rest of the way to the bridge that connected the island where the great forest was and the rest of Hyrule was silent on the prince's part. The two fairies were discussing about why their weapons seemed so useless now and tried to think in another way to fight the heartless.

They fell silent as soon as they realized how, with each step they were taking over the bridge, everything around them was getting darker. The prince even took a couple of steps backward, making everything go brighter again. It was as if that bridge was a path to the darkness itself. At the other side they were welcomed by a big stone arch with two torches illuminating the entrance. A thick fog surrounded the island completely, and it was hard to see what was beyond the arch besides another torch.

"Here we go" the prince said, not even thinking about it twice.

"Wait, what?!" The tan fairy pulled the brown spikes on an attempt to make the humanoid stop, with no success since they were already at the other side of the arch. "I can't see anything..."

The brunet humanoid swallowed a lump in the throat that he didn't knew it was there. The great tree was at the other side of the island, so they only had to go straight. Simple. Then why his legs were shaking? Shrill laughter began to resonate around the forest.

"_The prince of nothing is here~ The prince of nothing is here~_" a childish voice began the mockery.

"_Should we tell the chief or should we play with him?_"

"_With them! He isn't alone!_"

"_You mean those stupid balls? Remember the last time we tried to play with fairies, they are too stupid!_"

"Who are you calling stupid?!" The tan fairy raised his fist, offended.

"_If they find their way, we will tell the chief!_"

"_What if they don't?_"

There was no answer, but the laughs got a cold sweat down Riku's back. Brown brows furrowed as the prince began to walk forward. Sadly, he didn't make much progress before the fog swallowed them completely.

When the prince opened his eyes, he was running through the halls of the castle without even looking backwards. A loud growl made the walls and floor tremble, he could even hear how some parts were collapsing. "This is just a nightmare; you will wake up soon!" The brunet kept saying. Once he found himself outside the building, he realized the sky was blood red and the moon had a weird heart shape.

"Majesty!" One of the guards called him.

Some of the guards were still fighting creatures while others were running away for their life.

"Sora!" The brunet turned around but didn't even see who was calling him before a pair of strong arms pulled him into a hug. "Where is your mother?" The man asked. The brunet looked up at his father; green eyes with little stars in them were looking at him. The lack of any response from the teen and the way his body was shaking gave away where, or how, his mother was. Brown brows furrowed before the king dropped his head until brown bangs covered his eyes. "It's okay... It's okay..." No, it wasn't.

"We should run, _Your highness_! The more we kill, the more appear" one of the soldiers made his way to the king, sword on hand.

"Sora, listen to me." A new growl made the floor shake under them. "Go to the Great Forest of Hyrule and talk to the Great Tree. He will tell you what to do" the man said with both hands over the teen's shoulders.

Without any other word the king pushed his son to the guard. Didn't need to give the man any instruction before the guard pulled the prince away. Sora was yelling and struggling to get free, he wanted to go back to his father and pull him along with them. A new growl. This time, a huge black figure made its appearance through the castle, destroying anything on its way.

"FA-!" was all Sora managed to say before seeing how his own father was attacked by many of the creatures and disappeared just like his mother did.

_Goddess, please, what are your plans for me? I'm useless! How do you expect me to follow your will all alone?_

As soon as those words crossed his mind a new thunder lightning lit up the bloody sky, this time accompanied by a –too– loud thunder. The prince looked up as he allowed himself to be dragged, seeing how a huge ball of fire fell from the sky. He was expecting to see a few drops fall like with any storm, not the sky breaking and falling on them.

"_I'm Sora! And this is my friend Riku!_"

His eyes suddenly opened, finding himself back to the forest. He was laying down in the middle of the path with the silverette fairy sitting on his chest, his legs and arms crossed. The fairy would shake his head and then laugh at something before a whimper from the prince made him look over his shoulder.

"Hey, you are awake. Are you okay?" Riku asked, flapping his wings to raise himself and let the tan teen sit up.

The prince Sora looked around while rubbing his forehead. He was once again in front of the stone arch. Didn't he cross it already? His answer didn't take long to arrive as the fog seemed to move and spit the missing fairy. The laughs didn't take long to reappear.

"I swear! Once I get to you I'll show you who is the stupid fluffy ball!" Before he could throw himself again at the arch, Riku took his hand to stop him. "What? I got further this time!" The silverette didn't say a word, just pointed with his free hand at the prince. "Oh! You are awake! You scared us!"

"Sorry... What happened?"

"Seems our _dear friends_ are cheating. There's a path, that's for sure, but whenever we move a bit wrong the fog brings us back to the very start." Silver brows furrowed.

"I'll find the path, just leave it to me!"

Almost an hour later the voices had tired of waiting and gave up, dismissing the trio. The fairy Sora, as tired as he was, wasn't ready to give up just yet. He was close! He could feel it! Even if he hadn't really had reach to the center of the forest. A soft rattle called their attention and turned around just to see the same black horse that helped them with the heartless event. Its head was low and stopped once reaching the prince. The animal shook its head, approaching the hylian.

"Where is your owner?" The prince spoke softly as he stood up. His movements were slow and careful, reaching out the animal's head but didn't dare to touch it yet. He waited for the horse to actually move forward, pressing its forehead against the hylian's palm. Now that he could pay more attention to the horse, he realized that despair his pure black color it had a small white spot between its eyes in the shape of a heart. "So cute..." He whispered. The horse whinned and moved to invite the prince to jump on its back, a hint that Sora didn't take at first.

A few attempts later –even with the fairies help–, the prince managed to get on the horse's back and allowed the animal to go on its own, surprised to see it was going through the stone arch. Both fairies quickly took their seat over the prince's head. At first there were some torches hanging on the wall of some ruins but other than that they were still unable to see much. The further the animal went, the less they could see to the point they couldn't even see their own hands. Riku kept alert all the time, just like his childhood friend. Ten minutes later the fog moved and opened a path like a smokescreen, letting the trio over the animal enter the actual Great Forest of Hyrule.

"_The stupid fluffy ball is here!_"

"_Run! Run! Run! Call the chief!_"

"_No, no! Hide!_"

The tan fairy flapped his wings ready to go after the voices but Riku stopped him. The animal continued its way to a big square, just in front of a huge tree. The forest around them was so green, so alive... nature in that part of the forest seemed to live far from any danger. As soon as the prince jumped down the horse trotted away.

"The Great Tree..." The prince whispered.

"Who's calling the great tree?" a new voice from behind them asked. As they turned around, both fairies couldn't believe what their eyes were seeing.

"Your majesty!" Sora, the fairy, called as he flapped his wings to fly to Mickey, just to be slapped away.

"Sora!" Riku cried out, flying fast to his friend to check on him.

"Don't you dare to touch the chief, you _stupid puffy ball_!"

"So, it was you the one calling me that?! How you dare, Donald?!" Sora cried, rubbing his back.

In front of them stood Mickey, Donald, Goofy and a bunch of kids who Sora didn't recognize at first. The kids that looked like hylians were dressing different outfits to make them look like animals, while the animal-like, like Mickey, were just... naked. While the mouse was smiling at them, Donald was shaking his wings to the fairy. The tan fairy was ready to speak again, but Riku place one of his hands over his mouth to shut him up and shook his head.

"It has been a long time, Sora" the mouse said as he approached the hylian.

"E-excuse me?"

"Oh, right, you were just a kid" he laughed. "So, what brings you here?"

"The heartless are here!" The tan fairy cried out after pushing his friend's hand away.

"Heart... less? Who are them?" The mouse asked as confused as everyone else.

Oh... So that Mickey was the one from that world, not the king they knew. The tan fairy sighed frustrated, resting his head over his friend's shoulder. He should have imagined. Riku just chuckled and watched the others talk.

"The castle was destroyed and father sent me here before... be-before..." The prince began to explain, but didn't find the courage to keep talking. Thankfully someone snoring took everyone's attention away from him. More than someone, something. The huge tree was snoring! The brunet hylian blinked surprised, looking how a hole with a mouth shape was moving.

"Sorry about that. The great tree is getting old..." Mickey sighed.

"Who?! Who's there?!" The tree began to talk startling the prince. "Oh, gesh... Did I fall asleep again?"

"That voice sounds familiar..." The brunet fairy whispered.

"Yeah, he sounds like-"

"Oh, Merlin, the great tree! The prince of Hyrule is asking for you." The mouse cut him out.

"Oh? Prince Sora? My, my. As glad as I am to see you are safe, I know your visit means bad news. Am I right?"

"Yeah..."

He didn't want to remember, once again, what happened but he knew it was the only way to know why his father sent him there. It took him a few minutes before he finally allowed his lips to move and explain everything. The kids around him decided to just go play or do something more interesting, so when he finished only Mickey, Donald and Goofy –and the fairies– were present. He thought the tree had fallen asleep again because of the silence.

"So, it really happened. Nogan appeared" the tree whispered. "Sora, did you hear about Hyrule's legend?"

"Yeah, but it makes no sense. I'm a boy and the legend talks about a princess with a knight and four champions. I don't have a knight!"

"How can you say you don't have one? You do!"

"What? No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do!"

"Then where is he?!"

"He is right here, boy."

After a surprised 'what' silence was present. The fairies were looking around, trying to figure out who, of all the people present, was that knight the tree was talking about.

"YOU!" The prince cried out, looking up at the tree. The fairies were confused but then the pale teen realized he wasn't looking at the tree itself, but a black figure sitting on one of the branches while looking at them. Again, everything but its eyes was covered in black, and from that distance they couldn't see the color of those. "Who are you?!"

The black figure jumped down to the ground, slowly approaching the prince. Aquamarine eyes stared at him and the movement from the mask it looked like its lips parted to say something, but where shut fast when one of the kids screamed. "Black monsters are breaking the spell! They are trying to get here!"

The mouse pulled the prince away as everyone tried to find a spot to hide. Everyone but the black figure and the fairies.

"Why do you keep trying to use that useless thing?" the mysterious knight asked, taking one of the swords that were resting on his back. "You should try to find something more helpful if you really want to pretend to be fairies that exist to kill those things. Heartless, you called them."

"You were listening?" The tan fairy asked, brown brows furrowed.

The knight only snorted. "And thanks to the goddess I did or Sora would be dead by now. You have good intentions, but good intentions aren't the best weapon of choice."

"Who the hell are you?" Riku was the one asking it again.

Silence fell as aquamarine look closely at the pale fairy. The expression of the knight changed completely and part of his eyebrows were now visible. _Silver_.

"It can't b-"

"RIKU, WATCH OUT!"

* * *

{01/24 edit} I was told it was a bit hard to know who was who when both Sora were present, so I tried to fix that and a couple typos. I also added a tiny part explaining how the 'children of the forest' are dressing. No big changes, just fixing stuff.


	3. Dark Knight

_I considered not updating this fic here since it seems it didn't get much attention, but here we go with chapter 3._

* * *

**_Chapter 3: The Dark Knight_**

"It can't b-"

"RIKU! WATCH OUT!" the tan fairy cried out, flying as fast as possible to push his childhood friend away from the danger.

While the knight and Riku were exchanging words, a black smoke made its way through the fog and pounced on them. Or tried to, since the silverette was pushed away by his friend and the knight just jumped away once aware of its presence. The cries of the children echoed through the forest but it seemed that at the moment the only threat was that strange smoke. Between the screams both fairies were able to recognize the prince's voice calling them, imploring them to hide and be safe. But they just couldn't do that even if it was a single target and the knight would be able to take it down easily. The mysterious man was in a defensive position, holding the bright sword as if ready to attack any moment.

"What's the plan?" Riku asked, placing himself almost over the knight's shoulder.

"Easy. Get rid of that thing." The '_are-you-kidding-me_' expression from the silverette fairy made the mysterious man laugh. "The chief must be fixing the barrier that keeps the forest safe, so we shouldn't worry about more getting there." That short explanation seemed to calm Riku, who after hiding his keyblade looked at the tan fairy. Sora looked ready to jump to fight, so did the knight. Before Riku could say anything to Sora, the black smoke disappeared. The new trio looked around; the tan fairy confused while the other two alert to their surroundings.

A chirp was the only warning they got before a black figure threw itself to the knight, surprising them all. It all happened too fast. Before anyone could actually blink, the new figure was helding down the knight against a tree, pressing black hands around his neck. It was like looking to a mirror; the aggressor looked just like the knight, the difference between them being how its skin was black as well and its eyes gold, besides with each movement it left some smoke behind. Hands pressed harder around the knight's neck, making it hard –and almost impossible- to breath. Both fairies tried to push the heartless away from the knight, but their size were so small that their actions were even unnoticed by the shadow. Meanwhile, the knight was struggling to get free, ignoring how his gaze became increasingly blurred. The shadow moved enough to keep hold around his neck with one hand while it raised the other, its fingers becoming long and sharp claws.

The story was being repeated; the fairies could only watch in horror how the guy's heart would be ripped unless someone, by any miracle, would save him. This time there was no mysterious knight to save the day. And it didn't matter how much they tried to kick or punch the shadow; it was just useless. As the shadow moved its claws ready to open its victim's chest, the tan fairy pulled the shadow's hood. It didn't stop completely the shadow from attacking the knight, but with the pull his claw ripped part of the other's clothes instead of his chest. Riku, seeing how at least that called the shadow's attention, helped his friend in pulling the hood. The heartless turned around quickly, freeing its victim to face the two fairies. Now both its hands were sharp claws, and somehow both knew that heartless wasn't happy. They tried to fly away while being followed by an angry shadow of that knight, while the original one was left on the ground coughing for air.

"Sora! The tree!" Riku pointed in front of them, but kept flying straight. The tan fairy smirked, nodding. "Ready? Now!"

While the silverette flew to the right, the tan fairy flew to the left. The shadow tried to catch both of them, but not only didn't manage to catch any of them but also ended up facekissing the tree. Of course, that wasn't enough to get rid of it but gave enough time to the knight to recover. As soon as the shadow was standing up again and looking at the knight, more upset than before, it threw itself towards its victim but this time was welcomed by a bright sword. A quick move of his hands while holding the sword was enough to finish the work. The heartless was no more.

"You are bleeding!" The tan fairy pointed the knight's side.

"Just a scratch. I'll be fine" the boy said after checking himself. "I actually liked this shirt, it was comfortable..." He sighed.

Slowly the kids started to leave their hiding places, between them Goofy and Donald. There was no sign of Mickey yet, and the prince was nowhere to be seen. The knight didn't seem to be bothered by that since he was complaining about his shirt while one of the kids was trying to check his injures, unlike the fairies that tried to find the other hylian. It took a few minutes before the mouse and hylian appeared between the bushes; Mickey was making sure that the barrier was up again and tried to find why, or how, one of the creatures managed to get into the forest. The prince, however, got lost when running away after giving up on his attempts to call for the fairies. Thankfully the mouse found him on his way back.

While Mickey tried to calm down some of the kids that were still shaking or crying, the prince tried to make the great tree talk again and the knight just disappeared once again, leaving the two fairies alone over one of the tree branches.

"It has been the second time someone almost died on us and we haven't been here one day" the tan fairy said, blue eyes focused on his other self. "It's so obvious those creatures are heartless, yet we can't do a thing against them."

The silverette said nothing at the moment. His aquamarine eyes were looking everywhere, everything but nothing at the same time. "That's not true" he finally said back. "Just because our keyblades don't work properly, somehow, doesn't mean we can't be their support. We may be small, but we are a good team. Didn't you see how that shadow hit the tree?"

That question made the tan fairy burst out laughing, leaning closer to his childhood friend. "If I didn't see it? That was the best!" It took him a few seconds to calm down, but a soft smile remained on his face. "But, yeah. We are a good team."

"YOU SAY WHAT?!" The prince's voice interrupted their little conversation. Sora, the hylian, was ruffling his own hair while sitting on the ground, Mickey now on his side patting his back. "Aaaargh! But I don't want to wait until tomorrow! Why, great tree, why?!"

Riku couldn't help but laugh at the little tantrum the prince was having. The tan fairy didn't understand what was so funny so he just looked at the silverette confused. "I-I'm sorry, Sora. You two are just... so alike." The way Sora the fairy was now pouting and squinting at him just made Riku laugh more.

"Say, Riku" There was a pause from the brunet fairy, allowing his friend to calm down. "Do you think there's a version of you, too? Mickey, Donald and Goofy are here as well, maybe we find you around."

"Maybe. Who knows? I just hope he isn't a 15 years old me giving us a headache."

"So, you admit you were a pain in the ass?"

"I- What?! I never said such thing! But I guess I was. A bit." The tan fairy looked at him, his eyes squinted once again. "Fine! I was. Happy?"

"Yeah!" Sora grinned.

They were completely unaware of the third presence above them, who was just looking at them with curiosity. He wanted to jump down to their branch, but some of the kids joined the prince's tantrum for fun and the situation down there was already beyond annoying, so he decided to silently leave the area.

A couple of hours later Goofy announced that the beds for the newcomers were ready on '_you-know-who_'s room. Goofy was never one to be subtle with stuff, neither was on this new world. One of the kids guided the prince and both fairies to one of the biggest trees, where a big hole was open just above the roots. As soon as they were inside, it looked like it was a small house with only big leaves separating each room. There were only four rooms, three of them separated by leaves and the round middle one, with a bonfire at the center.

"You will be staying there. Don't dare to go to the other two" Donald said as he pointed to the left, where they should be staying.

"Gosh, Donald, it isn't like we are hiding anything" Goofy's characteristic laugh broke the tension the duck was building between them. "That's mine, and this one is Donald's. Sometimes the chief stays on this one, too, but today he will probably stay up to guard the place with his son."

"His son?" Riku asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

"Yeah! Sora's knight."

"Goofy!" Donald cried out from behind the leaves that separated his room.

"Hm? Did I say something wrong?"

"Just go to sleep!" The duck commanded.

With a long sigh Goofy complied and vanished through the leaves to his room. The prince was blinking in confusion, but didn't dare to say a thing. Didn't dare to annoy the duck. So, he just followed and vanished to the room it was supposed to be his that night. There were two big beds, they looked pretty comfortable despite being made of grass and leaves. Maybe some branches, too. Both beds were on opposite sides of the room, and only one of them looked like someone owned it already; there were different pots on a shelf, a couple of weapons resting against the wall-thing and some clothes discarded on a corner. There was, however, a shirt over the bed that called his attention, and was the ripped one that the knight has been wearing.

"So, he lives here..." Sora, the prince, whispered. Well, it wasn't so hard to guess that if he really was the chief's son.

"I wonder what he's hiding here" The tan fairy said, trying to look what was inside one of the pots.

"Don't do that! Don't be a bad fairy!" Riku laughed as his friend was scolded by the prince. "We are guests here, we must behave. So, now, to sleep!"

The tan fairy pouted but followed. While the prince made himself comfortable on the bed that didn't look owned, both fairies tried to find a spot around to sleep; Riku ended up sleeping at the prince's feet while Sora over the pillow, next to his other self's head. It wasn't that late in the night, but considering almost everyone living there were kids it was just like a tradition to go to bed soon. And, to be honest, both fairies and prince were really tired to complain. The only two up were the chief and the mysterious knight, the mouse sitting in front of the great tree and the other patrolling over the trees. They would usually stay up longer than everyone else just to make sure all kids were sleeping and every fire was extinguished before heading to bed, but this time none of them had the intention to sleep after the event with the heartless.

"So, may I ask what's so special with the fairies?" Mickey asked with his eyes closed.

"That's something I would like to ask the great tee" the knight answered, jumping down to sit by his father's side. "All the fairies I've seen are just... You know, a brainless _ball with wings_. But those are... Like tiny hylians with wings."

"What?" The mouse looked pretty confused as he finally opened his eyes. "They are just _balls with wings_. What do you mean they are like hylians?"

Now it was time for the knight to look confused. "No, they aren't? Did you look at them closely? The blue one is like a tiny version of Sora."

"Yeah, I've been looking at them since they got here. They just look like normal fairies to me."

"But that's- impossible..."

Was the mouse just messing with him? How was that possible? The knight blinked repeatedly in confusion; Mickey just titled his head before letting out a chuckle. At midnight the mysterious guy decided to check on the trio just to make sure they were still there and safe, the hours had passed uneventful but he had the urge to make sure the trio didn't run away for whatever reason. He tried to make his way to the room that he himself occupied usually without any noise, not wanting to wake up anyone. As calm as it was a forest at night, any rumble could echo through the bushes and wake up every kid around. Aquamarine eyes widened as soon as he moved the leaves to get on his room, choking on his attempt to endure a laugh after the initial shock. It was hard. Really hard.

Despite having two beds in the room, the trio decided to use just one to sleep. Well, two of them were sleeping while the third was pretty much suffering. Both Sora were spread-eagled, the prince practically occupying the entire bed while the tan fairy somehow ended up sleeping on the hyrule's stomach. Both of them were drooling, and the knight could swear the little fairy was moving his lips as if he was talking, even if nothing but snores left his lips. Riku, however, had a painful expression and his silver brows were furrowed, not to mention one of his wings was twitching every now and then. Well, who wouldn't suffer if they had a foot just as big as themselves crushing them against the wall? The knight wondered why, or how, the silverette fairy didn't wake up. Snorting he approached the scene and carefully moved the prince's leg to hold the pale fairy with his free hand, placing him over his empty bed. He wasn't going to use it, anyway.

"Who are you really...? Why are you here?" The knight whispered as he slowly and gently poked one of the white wings, that twitched at the touch. He wasn't really expecting any answer, so he wasn't surprised when his question was basically ignored. Hell, he would have been surprised if actually someone answered him! After making sure the trio was just fine, he left the room, but decided to stay near the bonfire for a while.

The slow movement of the flames under a huge pot and the cracking of the wood relaxed the knight. It had been a rough day; he didn't get to sleep at all the last night due to everything that happened in the castle and had been following the prince all day. As creepy as it sounded, it was his duty. Even if the prince himself rejected his protection once. That's why he was keeping himself in the shadows since then. He closed his eyes leaving his mind blank.

When he opened his eyes again, he was greeting by the sun's rays sneaking through the grand entrance. Early in the morning was the only moment the sun would make its way through the trees and warm the big place. His eyes widened as soon as it clicked on him. When did he fall asleep?! Panic rushed through his veins and stood up quickly, pushing the leaves enough to see that the trio was still sleeping. This time, Sora the fairy was curled up next to Riku with a tormented expression.

"Good... morning" a groggy male called the knight's attention. The prince Sora was sitting on the bed with his legs spread, hands placed between them to keep him steady. His head was titled to the side and his mouth was half open, a trail of dry saliva on the corner. He was fighting to keep his eyes open, a fight he clearly lost as soon as his upper body fell backward. Back to sleep.

The knight just rolled his eyes and left the room.

"By the goddess... You can't do that, Ansem!" that scream startled the silverette fairy, that quickly woke up. Ansem?! Ansem the wise?! The heartless?! Riku quickly flew to the leaves and pushed them enough –with huge effort- to go through them. The knight was sitting by the bonfire holding a tray with mushrooms, each one bigger than his hands,, trying to keep it away from a preteen that looked pretty upset.

The new guy had a blonde hair and was wearing a green, simple outfit made of green leaves. He wasn't even wearing shoes.

"Who says I can't?! You don't even know how to fry an egg, how are you supposed to know how to use them?!" The knight quickly yelled back, completely forgetting their guests.

"C'mon! Donald, tell him something! He can't use those delicious mushrooms for that dish, he will waste them!" Donald just groaned gibberish stuff from the other side of the leaves that lead to his room.

Wait- Aquamarine eyes widened at the realization. The knight was Ansem. The mysterious guy, the one that they didn't even know the name yet, was Ansem. The one he knew didn't have that color on his eyes, not to mention he was an old man and the one in front of him was clearly a teen, not much older than himself. But, didn't Ansem kept his identity a secret at first? Maybe... that mysterious guy wasn't really an ally?

"Peter, gosh, keep that voice low! You are waking them up!" Ansem said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, so what? It's almost noon, they should be already up." The blonde rolled his eyes, folding his arms above his chest.

"Noon?! For how long have we been sleeping?!" The silverette fairy asked, surprised.

"More than you should, but you all looked pretty tired so I guess you really needed it. However, I think you should wake up Sora. Both of them." The knight continued cooking, ignoring the blonde's complains.

Some hours passed before the group found itself in front of the great tree again. Sora, the prince, was pressing his hands together in front of his chest as if he was praying to the tree. The tan fairy was sitting over his head with his legs crossed, while the silverette one was floating close to the knight, who was just a couple steps behind the prince with one of his hands pressed against his own waist. Mickey was looking at the tree, waiting for any reaction from it. Kids were playing around, unaware of any danger outside the fog.

It took Riku a few minutes to have both Sora up and ready to eat something. Lunch was pretty silent, except for the tan fairy complaining at how hard was eating such big pieces of food in such a small body. After that, Riku bluntly asked the knight if he was Ansem, a question the tan fairy didn't understand at first but decided to ignore it once the knight finally confirmed it. Because of that, the silverette felt an urge to keep an eye on that mysterious guy, and that's why he was by his side now.

"What's all that noise?" The tree finally woke up, letting a yawn scape.

"Sorry, great tree. But I still don't know why I was sent here by my father. After the strange event from yesterday, I was told you don't... really talk twice per day so I had to wait. But I can't wait anymore, if there's something I should know I want to know it _now_." The prince's voice was demanding, but his eyes pleading.

"Right... Well, it's easy, boy." The tree cleared his throat, if a tree could have one. "_You_, dear Sora, must defeat Nogan. To do tha-"

"Are you mad?!" The brunette prince interrupted, losing all his color at the idea of _him_ having to defeat such a huge creature.

"To do thaaaaaaaat" Continued talking, ignoring the prince's outburst. "You must weaken him first. Darkness is spreading fast, even as we talk, all over Hyrule's Breath. Those creatures are weak right now, but they are getting stronger. This world is losing its light, and if no one stops Nogan... This world will disappear."

"Yeah, with no pressures..." Ansem rolled his eyes, now folding his arms above his chest.

"Why... me? Why not Ansem?! He is way stronger than me!"

At that question, the knight approached and took the white sword that was resting on his back, offering it to the prince. The tan hylian hesistated at first, but finally took that weapon between his hand. It confused him how the white aura around it vanished as soon as he did, being now a simple, light, white sword. "_She_ is yours" Ansem said. "Her name is _Princess' heart_. This one" he pointed the other one still resting on his back "is the _Dark Knight_. This one is mine."

"The pure princess, with the help of her knight and her four champions, will destroy Dark Nogan." Now was the tree's turn to continue explaining. "But the princess isn't pure anymore. Long ago, she lost her light and with it her power. She was corrupted the moment she found her next wielder. She needs her light back to be pure again, and _you_ are the only one who can do that."

"B-but, wait! That sword was just- Where is the light? It was shining!" The tan prince was really, really confused.

"Because Ansem here has been giving the light on his heart to keep her alive."

"Then keep doing that!"

"I ca-"

"If he does that his heart will be just darkness."

Both fairies had a deja-vu, but the tan fairy was the only one showing so by hugging himself.

"Get stronger, Sora! As you weaken your enemy, you will find the power in you to keep _Princess' heart_ alive. And maybe find the other two champions, too."

And what was their role in all that? Riku wondered as he folded his arms. Well, it wasn't like they had anything better to do than follow them wherever they went, at least until they were able to find a way to get back to their world. Or size, or the power from their keybades back. After a few instructions on where to go first and who they should contact for more guidance, the tree fell back into a long sleep. Prince eyes looked at the sleeping sword on his hands, unsure of what to do or say. His inside was having a weird war; fear, confusion, loneliness... everything was back slapping him even harder. Why him, however? That question was ignored. While he was trying to understand all the information he just received, Ansem decided to get ready for that travel to give him some space. Sora, the fairy, was looking at sword as well, he just looked as confused as the prince was. Although it was for a different reason. How Ansem was able to give his light to that sword? Was his other self the real wielder and that's why only he would be able to wake up that weapon? If so, why the sword didn't get her light back? Those questions were crossing his mind, so focused on them that didn't realize that Riku was nowhere to be seen.

The silverette fairy was following the mysterious knight, trying to keep some distance. It looked like every kid around loved Ansem by the way everyone was greeting at him or looked even happier when his presence was noticed. Maybe was because all the attention he was getting from the kids that he didn't notice the pale fairy following him. Or probably he was just pretending to don't notice, Riku thought. After the knight packed some stuff on a leather bag, he walked towards the little house inside the tree. There he began to remove the black gloves before pushing the leaves to his room; the pale fairy flew as fast as he could to get in the room before the leaves dropped back down. Riku tried to keep himself unnoticed over the leaves, keeping an eye on the other who was still with his back towards the fairy. Gloves were dropped on his bed, and soon his leather belt followed. It was time for the tight hood that kept his head hidden... Slowly, pale and large fingers pushed the fabric, releasing long and silver strands of hair. As soon as the hood was removed, those same fingers pulled the mask away before the entire top was discarded over the bed.

"Turn around..." Riku thought to himself. He wanted to see the other's face to get the answer to _who_ was really that Ansem guy.

As if the other one actually heard him, he turned around with his head down while trying to look for something. Now his longs bangs were keeping his face covered, to Riku's frustration.

"Are you planning to stare at me while I get naked?" The guy talked, startling Riku. "Well? At least do you like what you see, _other me_?"

The knight finally lifted his head to look at the fairy. Silver hair was falling over his pale shoulders, bangs long enough to keep part of his eyes covered but the aquamarine of his orbs was still visible. That coolly smile...

Yeah, definitely, that was _the other Riku_.

* * *

_Aaand I'm pretty sure everyone was expecting this. Who 'Ansem' really is. If not- SURPRISE!_

_This chapter may be a bit boring, but I wanted to keep the three first chapters to show a bit of the main team/characters; the arrival of the canon/original duo, the prince and the knight._

_Riku's design has been uploaded on my tumblr._

_I don't usually do this kind of stuff, but, please? Reviews are always nice to know if anyone likes it _


	4. Chain of memories Part 1

_**Chapter 4: Chain of memories. Part 1.**_

The stench around him was too unbearable, yet his eyes refused to open and see the cause of such a horrible smell. One could hear screams, cries, the creaking of the wood, things collapsing. His brain was screaming to him to run, however, his legs refused to listen. Yet, his eyes were shut tightly and there was no sign that they would open anytime soon. Steps of people running. Closer. Way too close. "Run!" a childish voice was screaming on his head, but still, his body remained stiff like a statue. The sound of a loud thunder finally got his body to react, just to jump, however, startled. How long has he remained in that position? Seconds? Minutes? He didn't really care. He just wanted everything to stop. He wished that, when he opened his eyes, he discovered that all those annoying noises and smells were part of his imagination. Sadly, the little voice reminded him that it was not like that. That, whatever was going on, was way too real.

Eyes snapped open when he felt something touching his nose. In front of him, a tiny version of himself was looking at him with worried eyes as he was pressing gentle his tiny hand on the tip of his nose. His reflection was moving his lips, telling him something, but despite how close he was to his face he couldn't hear anything. His hands squeezed tightly around an object he didn't remember he was holding, moving it closer to his chest. That tiny version of himself looked like he was now screaming something, his little shoulders were tensed as his face morphed into a painful one. Maybe even upset, too? His pupils weighed too much, everything around him was spinning.

_You can't run from it._

The quiet whisper of a distant voice was enough for him to slowly close his eyes again as a silver stain made its way close to him. The stench, the cries, the storm... Everything was back.

_That was your fault, remember?_

The body began to shake like a leaf dragged by the wind. What was his fault? He didn't remember, yet the pressure in his chest and the pain on his heart made him believe that, whatever had happened, it was, indeed, his fault. Slowly he started to feel as if his body began to burn; at first it was a warm sensation, then hot. Too hot. Painfully hot. His lips parted to let out a cry, one so strong that his throat began to hurt even before he was done. His eyes opened and soon he felt the warm and wet sensation of tears slowly making its way down his cheeks, dying on his bare skin over the top. His reflection wasn't there anymore, the green and brown from the trees weren't coloring his surroundings anymore, but, instead, dark colors from the night mixed with the red of blood and fire. There were dead bodies everywhere, limbs and heads —or the remaining of them— decorating the bloody floor. A grotesque image his innocent mind didn't want to see. The very few survivors from whatever had happened were either running away, trying to find their missing loved ones between tears of despair or desperately looking for someone to help them, too injured to even move an inch. He stood still. The object he had been holding before now felt heavier, forcing him to fall on his knees. With panic still on his face, blue, lifeless eyes descended to the object. His eyes widened as soon as he realized he wasn't holding an object anymore, but instead a small body with a sword going through his stomach. One of his trembling hands moved to raise a bit the boy's head, finding a small blood thread running between the corner of his lips, dying almost on his ear. The silver hair of the little body was messy and had little branches and leaves on it, as if he was hiding over the bushes before finding his fatal fate. The pain in his heart began to spread to his chest, slowly consuming his whole body.

"Ri... ku..."

A little spark appeared over the dead body's chest, glowing bigger and bigger until he was blinded by it, forcing him to close his eyes tightly and cover them with his forearm. The weight of the small body vanished soon after, just like the horrible smell. The cries were now whispers around him, his body felt light as a feather. The burning sensation was now warm, soothing. He allowed himself to be wrapped by it, longing that familiar warmth. The whispers were now a bit clearer to him; childish but worried voices. However, he was unable to understand what were they saying. The sound of a heart beating at an abnormal speed prevented him from paying attention, anyway. That sound was so calming despite its speed, so relaxing... Lazily his eyes opened, forced to blink until they were used again at the new light. Still, they remained only half open for a few seconds before they shut again. However, this time, everything was black and the whispers shut up.

Seconds. Minutes. _Hours_ had passed before blue eyes opened lazily, remaining open this time. A pair of worried aquamarine orbs appeared in front of him just a couple of seconds later. _Who are you...?_ He wanted to ask, but his brain wasn't sending any order to his lips. Everything was blurry, he couldn't figure out where he was.

"Sora?" the owner of those aquamarine eyes called in a whisper. The prince finally reacted, but only blinked repeatedly. He tried to focus his gaze on whoever was calling him, but it was hard. Too hard. "Sora?" the other called, again.

"Where am I?" the tan hylian asked, slowly sitting up with one hand over his forehead. While his gaze was now clear and could see that the guy next to him was Ansem, his head was spinning. "What happened?" His voice was low, afraid it would cause him a headache.

No answer. Confused, the prince turned his head enough to look at his companion; his back was towards him, it seemed the knight was looking for something around the shelf. It took Sora long seconds before realizing that he was now able to see the other's hair, lovely silver strands that were brushing his shoulders and part of his back with each movement. Would that mean that he, finally, would be able to see his saviors face? The answer to that question soon arrived as the knight turned around with a small pot on one of his hands, some kind of cloth on the other. No. Actually, he was able to even see less since the mask was still there and the bangs were covering almost everything else.

"You are now on my room. On the bed you used last night" '_Ansem_' finally answered, sitting on a stool that was resting next to the bed. "You got some fever. Nothing bad, but we will have to wait until you are better to leave." There was a pause. Sora realized that the knight was wearing no gloves at the moment, and his shirt had a weird, yet somehow familiar, symbol on it. Silver bangs were pulled gently and placed behind the ear by pale hands, his eyes now fully visible again.

The silverette remained silent as carefully smeared the cloth with some kind of cream from the pot, making sure it had a good amount before approach it to the sun-kissed skin. "It's a remedy that will help your fever, no need to worry" he said softly through the mask when his eyes realized how tensed the prince was, and how the younger boy moved unconsciously away from his touch. As soon as Sora nodded and relaxed, the knight proceeded to smear his forehead with the cream.

"You didn't answer what happened" The brunet's voice sounded more demanding than he intended, but wanted to know. He _needed_ to know.

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer. I was changing my clothes when I hear the kids screaming, when I got there you were on the floor screaming." Their eyes never met; Ansem was too focused to make sure there wasn't an inch of skin without cream, and the discomfort of the closeness of a stranger made Sora keep his blue eyes down. "I guess I could ask you the same."

Flashes of what he has seen hit him as his body tensed. It felt so real, yet, clearly, it wasn't.

"_Y-you... You are me?!" the pale fairy asked, even if he already knew the answer. "Why everyone calls you Ansem?" So blunt, but that just made the knight laugh._

"_Yes, I'm Riku. And I would greatly appreciate if you just keep calling me Ansem in front of everyone else. Specially Sora. The prince one."_

"_From who are you hiding?" the fairy asked, folding his arms._

"_Isn't it obvious? From Sora."_

"_Why?" Was he really one to ask that question? He, who did basically the same?_

"_Long story short, he doesn't want me on his life anymore. He went so far as to forget the existence of 'Riku'." He just shrugged it off._

_The fairy wanted to know what happened. Why Sora, someone able to forgive even his worse enemy, did such a thing? However, if that other Riku was just like him, he knew better than to push the wrong buttons._

"_May I ask why the name Ansem, though?"_

"_It's the name of the man that adopted me first. He took good care of me before he killed himself with one of his experiments. He was a wise man..."_

"_What the..." it's all the pale fairy was able to think after that answer. Even if his lips parted to say something else, they were interrupted when one of the kids began to scream at the other side of the leaves, crying some incoherencies about Sora. Not long after, both Riku were able to hear the prince screaming._

_The pale fairy flew away as fast as he was able on an attempt to find the prince's position soon, but the moment the hylian ran past him the fairy held on one of the silver strands. With how tall the knight was, there was no doubt it was way faster than flying. Or so he thought. He didn't find any other fairy to know if it was just him and Sora or all the fairies were that slow. As soon as they found the prince, he was convulsing on the ground, princess' heart on his side._

"_Sora!" the knight screamed, kneeling close to him. _

_The silverette fairy looked around, spotting the other fairy with fear on his face._

"_What happened?" Mickey, who just approached the place, asked._

"_I don't know!" the tan fairy answered, shaking his arms. He was really nervous. "We were here just fine. He said something and since I wasn't paying attention, I asked him to repeat whatever he said, but he didn't. When I wanted to see if there was something wrong, his eyes were just black! Like all of them! As if he was possessed! I-I don't know for how long I've tried to shake him, but he came to his sense. Or I think so because he was looking at me just fine. Then, bam! The sword began to shine and he was on the ground."_

_The silverette hylian looked at the sword with a frown, but said nothing before returning his attention to the prince. Slowly the body stopped shaking until it looked like a lifeless person with a peaceful expression on his face. Mickey placed his hand on the prince's forehead, shaking his head._

"_He should go rest. Probably it's just the same like the first time you took Dark Knight between your hands, so he should be fine after some rest. But it wouldn't hurt if someone keeps an eye on him. You know, for caution."_

_At that time children had gathered around them, watching the scene with concern. The knight took the unconscious prince on his arms —bride style— and carried him to his room, being followed by some kids who kept whispering their concerns. The two fairies followed close, too. Once they reached the room, the prince was placed carefully over the bed he used the night before and the kids were shooed. The tan fairy stood at the foot of the bed, looking worried at his other self._

"_He will be fine?" the tan fairy asked, looking up at the knight. It was just then when he realized that Ansem wasn't just shirtless, but his mask wasn't on his face either. "RIKU?!" His eyes were wide open while the knight just blew a few strands of hair away from his face. "I-it was you all the time?! Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Why didn't you just say so?!"_

_The silverette fairy placed himself next to his childhood friend, keeping an eye on the prince. Meanwhile, the knight just went to the room on the center to borrow a stool, placing it next to the prince's bed._

"_First of all, yeah. He will be fine. Secondly. I just had this conversation with your friend. Yes, I'm Riku. Sora didn't want to see me again so I just decided to use another name to save him." The knight raised a hand to brush his bangs backwards, being annoyed at how hard it was to see a thing with them covering his eyes._

"_Why does this sound painfully familiar..."_

"_No one here but Mickey knows my real name, and while I wouldn't mind if you actually call me Riku here, I would appreciate if you don't. Not in front of Sora. Of him." He pointed the prince._

"_Do you really think he is that stupid to don't recognize you? Or are you planning to cover your face all the time?" Sora asked, although the pale fairy looked curious about the answer._

"_Why do you think I've been wearing the mask?" The silverette hylian asked, feeling the prince's tan skin. "Although I'm sure he wouldn't recognize me. Not because he is stupid or something, but... Because he has no memory of me. It's a long story, ok? And don't ask. I don't want to talk about it."_

Both fairies were on the other bed, silently watching as the knight was taking care of the prince. The tan fairy was shaking on his place, bitting the inner of his cheek on his best attempt to don't scream out who really was 'Ansem'. Both Riku made him promise he wouldn't say a word; while he understood the knight reasons, why his childhood friend was so against it, too? The silverette fairy, who noticed how anxious his friend was, took the younger's wrist and pulled him enough to expose the bare skin of his forearm. A pale finger softly caressed the sun-kissed skin, a gesture that confused the brunet fairy. A light crimson color stained the tan cheeks, so light it was barely noticeable. As much as it confused him, he had to admit that the soft touch relaxed his body. It felt nice, and tempted him to lean closer for more. After a short pause, the silverette repeated his actions. It took a few attempts before Sora, the fairy, realized what the other was doing. "_Are you okay?_" the pale finger wrote on his skin and aquamarine eyes looked at him. The brunet fairy shook his head in negation. As tempted as he was to lie, he knew better than to do so. "_Riku?_" The finger wrote this time on his skin, this time with eyes fixed on the knight's back. This time the younger fairy sighed and pulled his arm away.

"Why?" He whispered, looking at his childhood friend.

"It's his decision." That was all the silverette answered before his other self looked at them over his shoulder, frowning. "Since Sora is already awake, we are going to check the place and make sure everything is ok. Just call us if we are needed." Riku said as he stood up, hinting his friend to the same. Ansem pushed the leaves to help the fairies leave.

"What was that for?" Sora asked, flying close to the silverette. "I didn't want to leave."

"Sora, I know you. I know you were about to explode and say everything to the prince. Remember that we can't mess with this world" Riku answered, his chuckle becoming a laugh at his friend's pout.

"I can't say I understand why he doesn't want to say a thing. I mean, he is obviously hidding something but... Why you?" This time Sora was in front of Riku, preventing him from flying away. Blue meet aquamarine, brown brows furrowed.

The silverette was unsure, now, if his friend was asking him why he was on his other self's side or if he was asking, again, why he once used to hide himself the same way. With a sigh the older teen brushed his hair backward. "Sometimes we believe our actions are the best to save someone, but we don't realize how wrong we are. Other times, we are just forced to do what we do. Sora, we don't know where this other Riku is, and he doesn't want to talk about it. Give him time. Give _them_ time.

"Besides, we are stuck here for some time. Do you really want to bother him doing exactly the opposite of the only thing he asked you?" A single silver brow was arched, questioning.

No response.

"Sora...? _Please...?_"

"Fine! I'll try it. But I can't promise anything." His cheeks were puffed the moment Riku ruffled his hair with a smile on his lips.

"Who's a good boy?" Riku asked, teasing.

"I-I'm not a dog, Riku?!"

"No, but you are- How did Donald call you? _Fluffy ball_? I guess that was it. Guess who saw that baby tummy despite your small size."

Oh, no. Riku wasn't really touching that topic, right? Yes, he was. There was a cry of surprise coming between Sora's lips, eyes wide open. The silverette got the exact reaction he was after; distracting Sora from all that Ansem topic. The brunet shook his fist and the pale fairy took the hint to fly away fast, being followed by his childhood friend. At first the brunet was grumpy at how Riku was teasing him but, after a few seconds, all his useless threats became laughter. When was the last time they were able to play like that? Wasn't it before Destiny Islands was devoured?

Ansem looked the fairies have their fun from his spot, leaning over the huge entrance the improved house inside the tree.

"_Riku! Riku!" a childish voice called after him. As soon as his aquamarine looked over his shoulder, he found the owner of that voice. "Why didn't you come play with me yesterday? I was waiting all day!"_

_A small, tan boy with brown spiky hair was looking at him, his blue eyes betraying that, despite his sad expression, he was really happy to see him. The brunet puffed his cheeks and placed one of his small hands over his shoulder._

"_You promised. You said you would come every day!"_

_A chuckle escaped between his lips. "I'm sorry, Sora."_

The silverette hylian shook his head and went back inside his room, where the prince was now sleeping. The prince's face was calm, there wasn't a single wrinkle nor eyebrows were furrowed. He looked like he was sleeping in peace. An expression that, somehow, relieved the knight. How wrong the older hylian was to believe that nothing was about to bother the prince's sleeping mind. The silverette didn't pay attention at how much time have passed since the last time his eyes fell on the tan boy, he was lying comfortably on his bed when his gaze traveled to the prince and realized a wrinkle between his brows was forming. Cautious, he moved one of his pale hands on an attempt to feel the other's forehead to make sure the discomfort wasn't because the fever got worse, but to his surprise tan finger wrapped quickly around his wrist.

"Sora?" the knight whispered, slowly sitting up on the edge of his bed. The room wasn't so big, but still his bed was moved closer.

"I want to go home..."

Despite the frown now visible on the knight's face, he was unable to blame the prince for wanting such a thing. To be fair, he couldn't even blame the younger hylian for being afraid. He used to be a happy and innocent prince surrounded by his loved ones and his loyal guard. Yet, in less than twenty-four hours his entire world was destroyed and forced into a suicide mission. The knight's lips parted to let out a sigh, retracting his hand.

"It is no longer your home. Now it's Nogan's home... But we can kick his ass away and reclaim your home." Those words had sounded way better in his mind.

"Why do you want to help me? Why have you been saving me? Why, when you could have done like that guard?"

Guard? Oh, right... The guy that left the castle with Sora and was supposed to help him get to the forest. The same guy that almost pissed himself when a couple of shadows appeared and pushed the prince as bait while he ran away. 'Ansem' groans remembering how hard he tried to find that guard after saving Sora, wanting to beat him up for daring to call himself guard while being such a coward.

"I- Because it's my duty. Besides, I'm the only one that can hold _Dark Knight_ so you need me" the silverette said the last words pointing at the sword resting against the wall.

"Your duty..."

The prince didn't say anything else. Actually, he turned around and curled up, making it obvious to the knight that, for whatever reason, he didn't want to talk anymore. At least for now.

Hours passed uneventful; Riku, the hylian, kept an eye on the prince and only left the room to prepare something to eat. The fairies decided to investigate the forest –or as much as they were able without crossing the fog–, finding that there were different houses, all of them inside the big trees. There were some even underground. At least that explained to them where all those kids lived. The prince only left the room once dinner was done, ate in silence and returned to his temporal bed. That behavior was getting on the other Sora's nerves, but it didn't matter how many times he tried to ask, the answer was always the same; nothing.

"You did this to me, Sora."

The prince couldn't recognize the voice, but, somehow, it felt so familiar... He was afraid to turn around and see who was talking to him. His eyes were half open, looking at the wall in front of him as he curled up on the bed.

"Why, Sora? I thought we were friends." The same childish voice talked and, this time, the tan hylian felt a chill down his spine. "Not even an apology? Was so easy for you to forget me?"

Sora decided to slowly turn around; Ansem was on his bed sleeping peacefully, his mask still covering half of his face. The silverette fairy was over the pale hylian's pillow, while the tan fairy was snuggled up between some of the long silver strands. It would have been a normal scene if wasn't because there was another body on the bed. The prince's eyes widened, but remained silent.

The intruder moved to stand between both beds, looking at the prince with sharp eyes. He was just a kid, yet his expression was so cold... Bloody tears were falling down his cheeks, and another trail of blood escaped from the corner of his lips. His aquamarine eyes were now glaring at the teen hylian, his silver strands dancing with each movement. The little body took a step forward, letting the soft light of a torch illuminate his body better; his skin was the palest color the prince had ever seen despite the orange touch from the torch, black and blue spots were visible all over his body. His clothes were ripped and...

"Do you remember now, _your Majesty_?" the kid questioned, his voice harsh at the last words.

There was a hole on his stomach as if something went through him. That may have explained why the kid looked so dead. The prince shook in fear and sat up, covering his mouth with both hands. That could stop his voice, but that didn't stop the tears.

"So, you do..." the kid whispered, a smirk on his face.

"Go away!" the prince screamed in tears. "GO AWAY!" he repeated, closing his eyes tightly.

It didn't even take a second for him to hear some fast movement next to him, feeling how the bed sank down at the weight of another person.

"Hey, Sora?!" The prince opened his eyes to find Ansem in front of him with a worried expression. On his shoulder both fairies were also staring at him. Just a couple of seconds later the leaves pushed aside to let Goofy and Donald join them, each one holding a branch on their hands, ready to kick whoever was molesting the prince.

"Ansem?! The hell are you doing?!" Donald asked, glaring at the silverette hylian.

"Nothing! I was just slee-"

"I saw him again..." the prince cut him out. Now all the eyes were on him, curiosity shining in their orbs. "I-I... I killed him... didn't I?"

There was silence. No one answered because they didn't understand the question.

"It's probably just your imagination" Mickey began to talk as he pushed the leaves aside. He, despite being in the square, also heard the screaming. "You have been through a lot in such a short period of time, Sora. There's always a limit of what one can handle."

"Am I... going insane?" the tan hylian asked, relieved when he saw the mouse shake his head in negation.

"Who is that guy you saw again?"

"..." Sora, the hylian, felt all the eyes on him. He didn't know what to answer, he didn't know the kid. But there was always a name crossing his mind whenever he saw him. Maybe, just maybe, was because he looked really similar to the pale fairy.

"It's okay, you do- Sora?" Mickey blinked in confusion. Not only the prince wasn't listening to him, but he was now reaching out to the pale fairy.

"Riku... can you, please, forgive me?" the prince asked in a whisper. The pale fairy was confused. Why should he forgive him? Did Sora, the prince, do something to him while he was sleeping? He wanted to ask, but the prince saw his confusion and quickly looked down. "I can't really explain what's going on. But it's the second time I saw him. The first time he was dead on my arms, and- and now... He was here, hating me and accusing me. He- he had a hole on his body, I-I was able to see through it!" There was a pause. "He was just a kid! And I killed him! I killed Riku!" Ansem's body, or better said _Riku's_, froze at those words after his eyes wide opened.

While the tan fairy decided it was a good moment to glare at the pale hylian, the silverette fairy realized something. _Princess' Heart_, that was resting not far from _Dark Knight_, shone for a few seconds. But its light wasn't pure bright like it used to be when the knight was holding it, but it was... black.

After that, the room fell into an awkward silence that was only broken when Mickey decided it was a good moment to go back to sleep, try to rest since next morning their travel would begin and it was a long one. Both fairies decided to sleep next to the prince while the knight stayed up the rest of the night. There were many questions crossing his mind, but the main one was why the prince thought _he_ was dead. Did _she_ lie to him when _she_ said Sora lost almost all his memories from his childhood?

Curiously, in the morning the prince was smiling as if nothing happened. He looked again like the cheerful guy the fairies tried to save a couple of times. That, of course, if one was able to ignore that the little stars on his blue orbs weren't there anymore. His laughter was just a mask. No one said a thing, however. A couple of hours later both hylian were sitting on the black horse, the knight being the one holding the reins. Both swords were resting on a sack since the prince refused to touch any of them for now. The fairies were resting over the prince's head again.

"What do you say the place is called?" the tan fairy asked.

"Kakariko village. We should arrive before the sun sets" the knight responded, bored.

"And there we have to talk with the chief, right?" was the prince the one asking this time. "Do you know them?"

The knight nodded. "Naminé is-"

"WHAT?!" the brunet fairy asked, his heart skipping a beat. Was that because of Roxas? Riku couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's reaction.

"What? There's a Naminé too on your world?" the knight asked, curious.

"Yeah- Well, used to be? It's hard to explain."

"I see... Well, like I was saying, she is like the purest person you will ever met."

"Do you like her?" the brunet hylian asked, tilting his head.

"What?! No! She is cute and all, but that's it."

"Yeah, suuuuuure" the brunet hylian tried to mess with the knight, but stopped as soon as he felt some movement over his head. He tried to see what the fairies were doing, but failed.

_Your light is going out._

A whisper called the prince attention.

"Did you say something?" he asked, but the knight just looked over his shoulder confused before shaking his head.

_You are allowing the darkness to take over your heart. You are weak._

"What...?"

_You aren't ready. You are going to die. You always did..._

The prince didn't know what to say or what to do. Who was whispering those things to him? By the movements over his head it seemed the fairies were having a childish fight and the knight kept his mask on. With a sigh he leaned over, hidding his face on the silverette's back, wrapping his arms around the other's waist to keep himself from falling.

"Everything will be okay" the knight said out of the blue.

_Nothing will be okay. This world can't be saved. The door has been opened, and you are the one to blame._

* * *

Dark chapter is dark. What is reality? What's a lie?

Chain of memories was supposed to to have 5 parts, but now is down to only 2. Too confusing? Please, I promise everything will get its answers in due time.


End file.
